Homecoming
by VG LittleBear
Summary: One shot - Tag to "Heartland" s06 ep.04 - loss & reunion - Jack Gibbs, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, (Kelly) - Spoiler warning: 6x04


Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Set in time: NCIS 2008, interludes to "Heartland", with a prelude in 1991

Spoiler warning: 6×04 "Heartland"

Main characters: Jackson Gibbs, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, (Kelly).

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope the different POV are clearly identifiable! Enjoy!**_

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><p><strong>Homecoming<strong>

(by VG LittleBear/vglb)

-_1991_ -

Kelly Gibbs was happy, her dad was coming home in a few weeks. She had asked her mom to help her create a banner for his homecoming, and Shannon had drawn the words in big letters. Then Kelly went about painting them with her best friend Maddie. They had gotten a good start on it, padding the letters pink and blue, and around them Kelly drew butterflies and flowercups in bright colors. She wouldn't let Maddie touch these though.

The butterfly was Kelly's very own sign, and the flowercup stood for Shannon. They signed them on the almost daily one-liner postcards mailed to Gibbs in the field. She knew her dad translated them as hugs and kisses, so of course the banner had to have them too!

Shannon had planned driving up to Stillwater before flying down to Pendleton to get ready for her testimonial. So Kelly had taken the nearly finished banner along, and completed it under the attentive eyes of grandpa Gibbs. He helped her fix the colors with the cheapest hairspray in his store. Before leaving, Kelly got Jack Gibbs' promise to bring it to Washington D.C. in time to welcome Jethro. Only that never happened, it wasn't something to take along to a funeral.

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><p>When Jackson heard that he'd lost his only grandchild, along with his daughter-in-law, he had boxed up the finished banner, and put it in his garage. Heart-sick as he felt, he couldn't imagine how his son must feel. Sure, Jack had gotten over losing his own wife in time, but he wasn't sure Leroy had ever gotten over his mother's death. Not until Shannon came along and chased that angry look out of his eyes. Now Shannon was gone, as well as Kelly who'd meant the world to his son.<p>

After the funeral Leroy had given him a cold stare, and bewildered Jackson had withdrawn and let the nice lady who stood by him at the funeral, drive him back home. Jack never quite understood why he'd been rejected by his son when he came up to him graveside. One thing was sure, the rage was back in Leroy's eyes.

Earlier that day Jack had dropped off the family car at the desolate Gibbs home, then gotten into the car of Ms Wells who had been following him all the way from Stillwater. She'd walked into his store just as he'd come back from the garage and saw the tears in his eyes. He'd told her that he was burying his grandchild and her mother in the next days, and she'd kept him company as he grieved. Then at the funeral, she had never left his elbow, giving him the strength to get through the day.

Leroy never called or wrote, although Jackson heard that he'd gotten a job with NIS. Apparently his son had done well as Probationary Special Agent; Jack had seen a picture listing him among the Fed Five, a legend in making. After that Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was gone from view for long stretches of time. Only to resurface at NCIS Headquarters with a team of his own.

Jack Gibbs got on with his life, even did some travelling to exotic places. Yet he always came home, unlike his son. When he felt lonely he worked on the Dodge Challenger his teenaged son had once dragged in from the junk yard, paying for it with savings he'd made off odd jobs. When Shannon had been alive, Jack had never tired of teasing Leroy when he just didn't have time to work on it anymore after he'd left to be a Marine. Jackson had kept the car in his garage, rebuilding it as time permitted, and one day he'd gotten the hemi to run. He'd have loved calling up his son, but he contented himself with buying just the right yellow color. Then he was adding the black stripes, including the distinctive topstripe, and he was done. The first time he took the car for a run was bittersweet, if only Leroy had been there to share the moment! But he was a stubborn man, he'd wait for Leroy to show up!

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><p>- <em>2008<em> -

By the time Gibbs was seen once more in Stillwater, Jackson had not spoken with his son in long years. Ed Gantry had dropped by to tell him that he'd seen the prodigal son a few streets over. The Sheriff's words, not his! Counting it for a first step, Jack made his move and walked up to the exotic beauty who stood out in the road. And when Leroy presented Ziva David and Tim McGee to him, and let them know that Jackson Gibbs was his father, he felt his world reset.

They called him 'Boss', Jack learned. Like in the mines he'd worked, the boss usually was a bastard, but he got the work done. At first Jack didn't believe it, but then Leroy had given him a look, and he did.

On his suggestion, Leroy had sent his agents to gather DNA the next morning, while he and Leroy worked side by side in his store. Not that Jack needed the help, but they had always done their best talking when they kept their hands busy. While Leroy was pricing wares, Jack finally got his son to explain what had set him off at the funeral. So many years lost not talking! Not even a Christmas card! Although those had probably only happened, because Shannon would put them under Jethro's nose for signature. His son had never been keen on paperwork.

At least Leroy seemed to have lost the permanent rage in his eyes. The temper was still there though, as he saw when the collected DNA was set ablaze together with the NCIS car! He'd nearly had a heart attack when the tank exploded, but everyone was safe and sound. Well, the soft approach was not working, he'd been wrong before!

Later the day he heard "Boss" spoken in a new voice. Tony DiNozzo was making puppy eyes, and to his astonishment his Leroy was smirking and hiding it behind his cup of coffee. And when Abby Sciuto greeted Leroy with an all out hug and got a kiss on her cheek in return, Jack got an inkling that the bastard boss had a soft underbelly. There was something about these new team members ...

After team Gibbs had identified and locked up the initiator of the violence against Ethan, Jethro led the entire team back to his old home. Tim had gotten permission to update Jack's laptop with some new software and was in geek-heaven. Jack had gotten busy in the kitchen, and was soon joined by Ziva who chopped the vegetables like a pro. Apparently she had a thing for knives. Abby had raided the store for ingredients and was making dough for cookies.

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><p>In the meantime Tony had wanted to go play baseball at the school fields down the street, but Jack had heard him veto that idea, as Tony didn't have a warm jacket. Gibbs was aware he sounded just like he had when Kelly wanted to go out play, but he couldn't help it.<p>

It wasn't that cold, but Abby told his father sotto voce "Bossman helped Tony through the plague".

Jack didn't understand the reference to a sickness out of the dark ages, but without further delay he got out a warm white jacket and handed it to Tony for keeps. Jack then told them to be back in time for supper and pushed both him and Tony out the door.

Gibbs took Tony over to the garage to pick up his old baseball and gloves, he didn't even bother to put on the lights, as the box holding them was still in the same spot as his dad had revealed earlier. They made their way over to the field and passed the baseball between them as if they had done this a million times before. Tony was bursting with questions, but Gibbs was quietly savouring the feel of his old glove on his hand. He couldn't believe it still felt so smooth. His father must have worked the leather! Jethro marvelled at all the things his father had done for him while he was nursing his misplaced resentment.

When it was time for supper they turned back to the garage. This time Gibbs put on the lights to store the baseball material once more. When he pushed the box back in, he saw another box alongside it with his name scrawled on. Wondering what it was, he shook it lightly. It wasn't heavy, so he decided to take it along to the house.

"I'm home, dad!" he shouted at the door, and Jack came out to them with a pleased grin on his face.

"Never thought to hear you say that again, son!"

When Jack's eyes fell on the parcel in his hands, he directed Tony to go wash up. Left alone with his father he quirked an eyebrow and bent his head just so.

Jack pointed at the box and said: "Kelly made a banner for your homecoming. Kinda fitting you found it. Why don't you go ahead and look at it now?"

For a moment there, Gibbs felt like a deer caught in a headlight, but he shook his head and the moment passed. Carefully he folded the banner out on the floor. Discovering the lettering in Shannon's careful uppercase, highlighted in pink and blue, and surrounded by a myriad of butterflies and flowercups, he remembered that Kelly promised to redeem every single virtual butterfly kiss, and Shannon butting in with, "and the hugs, too" after he came back with a bunch of one-liner postcards from a previous posting.

Abby had seen Tony come in, but when Gibbs didn't show up, she tiptoed to the entrance. Both Gibbs men stood there, Jack with a hand on his son's shoulder, and Gibbs breathing hard. Throwing caution to the wind she glided in and gave a quick squeeze to Jack, then let Gibbs enfold her into a long embrace. Finally feeling Gibbs' breath evening out, Abby squeezed him one last time, then let him show her the reason he'd been needing that hug.

There on the banner on the floor, lovingly crowded by butterflies and flowercups was one last message from his wife and daughter: "YOU'RE HOME, GIBBS! LOVE YA, DADDY!"

- finis -


End file.
